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Takara history section

The earliest start for Takara (タカラ) was as the ”Satō Manufacturing Plant (佐藤加工所)”, founded by Yasuta Satō in 1953. By 1955, Satō had been successful enough to create “Satō Vinyl Industries Co. Ltd. (有限会社佐藤ビニール工業所)” in the Takaramachi (宝町) neighborhood of Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward (葛飾区). After moving to the nearby Aoto (青砥) neighborhood, the company’s name was changed to “Takara Vinyl Industries Co. Ltd. (株式会社宝ビニール工業所)”, in honor of the neighborhood where they started. At first, the name "Takara" was written in kanji: "宝", just like their old neighborhood. This would make them "Treasure Vinyl Industries Co. Ltd." at the time. The company would change their name several more times over the next couple years, first to "Takara Vinyl Industries Co. Ltd. (株式会社タカラビニール工業所)" (now in katakana), and finally just “Takara Co. Ltd. (株式会社タカラ)” in 1966. As their early names imply, for much of this period Takara specialized in creating toys made from vinyl sheeting, such as floating pool toys and other inflatables.

Takara’s first big success was 1960, when they became the manufacturer of an inflatable vinyl toy distributed by Tsukudaya Toys (later Tsukuda Co.), called "Tree-Climbing Winky" (木のぼりウィンキー). In the summer of 1960, the toy became an enormous pop culture fad, appearing in tv shows, comics, and was even mentioned in songs. The doll had a very simple design, so knock-offs soon became widespread. Tsukudaya Toys took out newspaper advertisements reminding customers to "Look for the Tsukudaya Bell Mark" on the toy, to assure it was authentic.

In the first six months alone Tree-Climbing Winky had sold over 2.4 million units, and was even exported for sale in other countries, such as Denmark, and the United States. This financial success gave Takara the ability to separate from their deal with Tsukudaya, and strike out on their own to design, market, and sell toys as a distributor, instead of acting as a manufacturer for other toy companies.

Takara decided to drop the name "Tree-Climbing Winky", and officially adopt the nickname most consumers knew the toy by: "Dakko-chan (ダッコちゃん / だっこちゃん)". Takara took Dakko-chan as their logo, instructing customers to "Look for the Dakko-chan mark", to ensure an item’s quality. It would remain their logo for 30 years, until it was removed in 1990.